MR. HARCOURT'S COSTLY LESSON. Don't Prosecute in a Hurry.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 102, 14 June 1902, Page 8

MR. HARCOURT'S COSTLY LESSON. Don't Prosecute in a Hurry.

MR JB. Hai court, the wellknown auctioneer and land agent, has been buying a little experience which he seems to have needed very badly. Last week, he had to plead ignorance in Court of the difference between arresting a man on warrant and bringing him to book by a simpler process. How remarkably verdant he must be, to be sure, to have reached his years without picking up that very ordinary bit of knowledge. But he knows all about it now. The price he will have to pay for it — £350 and costs, if the verdict of the jury is given effect to — ought to drive the lesson home, and make it live m his memory And it is to be hoped other people, who may be disposed to act on impulse and take out a warrant of arrest, will take heed of his experience, and count the cost bef 01 c they call the game. • * < The facts of this case seem simple enough Mr. Harcourt had m his employ, for two years prior to February last, a clerk named. Robert Jackson Aiken, who, amongst other things, had charge of the petty cash It was kept m a box, to which Mr Harcourt's son, as well as Aiken, had a key In February, Mr Harcourt says he sent Aiken home because he was ill from drunkenness Aiken did not letuin Some discrepancies were found in connection with the petty cash, and Mr Harcourt had an mteiview with Aiken He accused his clerk of having embezzled some of the petty cash, and threatened that if he was not out of Wellington m four days a warrant would be issued for his arrest • * * Now, this is the language of menace, and if Aiken had been a timorous man he might have weakly yielded to the threat of prosecution, broken up his home m Wellington, and gone elsewhere to make a fresh starb under the handicap of a damaged reputation. Aiken, however, denied the charge, and remarked that if a warrant was to be issued for his arrest Mr Harcourt had better issue one against his own son as well. Mr Harcourt says this made him angry, and he went off and swore an information against his clerk, and had him arrested on warrant And yet, he naively admits m Court he knew where the man lived, and was aware that he was not going away from Wellington • * • Aiken was bi ought to trial in due comse for misappropriating his employer s petty cash It was, apparently, a flimsy case, and was promptly dismissed Then, Aiken pioceeded against his ex-employer and prosecutoi to recover £51 G damages for alleged malicious prosecution After a patient trial, the jury affirmed that the prosecution had been malicious, and found a verdict for £350 damages So far as we have been able to ascertain, public opinion strongly endoises the jury's decision And the presiding judge felt impelled to observe during the course etf the trial that Aiken's arrest on warrant at all was almost unjustifiable There is not the slightest doubt it was a very improper proceeding, and, m the public interests, we think it highly undesirable that

Justices ot the Peace should be armed wth such large poweis Except in extreme cases only lesponsible officers, possessed of something more than a hazy notion of the law, should be allowed to issue wai rants of airest. » * * Men like Mr. Haicouit must be taught that it is not a light thing to set fche machinery of the criminal law in motion against anyone, no matter how humble he may be It is a very grave matter to accuse any person of a criminal offence. How much more serious to subject him to the ignominy of being anested on warrant, and haled to prison on a charge which completely breaks down Our sympathies in this matter are entirely with Mr Aiken We have no personal knowledge of him, but the evidence adduced in Court shows that he had a substantial grievance. And that verdict of £350 damages against Mr. Harcourt is bound to have a most salutary and steadying effect upon impetuous gentlemen who might be disposed to take the law into their own hands without either rhyme or reason It is just as well, before you lush off for the police, to know the difference between arresting a man on warrant and proceeding against him by summons It may save your pocket, at any rate